[sneezer]

Please can anyone advise, I have had 3 rescue hens for a week, they were fine together,now I have one which wont leave the others alone especially one of them- each time she goes for a dust bath she chases and pecks her or just pecks at her any chance she gets, if she attempt this with the otherone she retaliates and almost holds her head down with a bite, or goes for the comb or head. Their run is 9ft by 4 ft, I will be letting them out this weekend when I have made the garden secure, is it a space issue?

[joyfull]

chances are it's one hen asserting her authority over the others (sorting out the pecking order), make sure they have several feeders, drinkers and hiding places. Your run is just over the minimum that Defra recommend at 1 square meter per bird of run space but on here we advise at least 2 square meters per hen. Keep some purple spray handy to disguise any redness and also get some wound powder. Things will settle down but it may take a couple of weeks 

[sneezer]

thankyou, I have just applied some anti pecking spray so hopefully this will help, i'll get some wound powder aswell.